By Rana DiOrio, Founder
BEA vs. Bologna. What struck me most about BEA when I attended last year is the expectation of the attendees to receive copious amounts of free stuff, books included. Free bags abound on the floor of BEA, so attendees have a place to stash all of their loot. One giant portion of the Jacob Javits Center is devoted to author signings. Attendees line up in lengthy queues to receive their free copies of signed books. Publishers, book award organizations, and professional associations also host artists in their booths to sign and give away free copies of their books. Then, there is the collateral—pens, flash drives, umbrellas, T-shirts, pads, sewing kits, staplers . . . you get the idea. This exchange of “stuff” does not happen at, for example, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. No publisher gives away their books, and there is comparatively little marketing collateral exchanging hands. Instead, the focus is on the global business of creating, buying, and selling books and the rights to them. As it should be, right?
Books Are Precious. As a firm that is committed to producing only the highest quality media for children and has won awards for each title we have produced to date, I’d like to offer the informed position that books are precious. They take a great deal of time, talent, and capital to produce. They are to be respected and appreciated, and they are worth the price for which we buy them, online or offline. To give them away diminishes their value, figuratively and literally. There is an entire ecosystem that goes into producing a single title, and when we purchase a book we support the all the people who belong to that supply chain, from the artists, to the printers, to the delivery personnel, to the booksellers, and many more in between. To give a book away jeopardizes the livelihood of many, diminishes the importance of the product, and is tough on the environment (when the recipient does not respect it).
We Welcome Your Feedback. Now and always, we welcome your feedback. We by no means have all the answers. Quite the contrary, we are on a quest to learn and to improve. We need your comments and suggestions to be the best we can be.
5 comments:
I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some of those new posters! Sign some for me, too!
Books ARE precious, so I can see the excitement over getting them free. I also value them enough to the importance of paying for them. I've been to many of these events and seen people just grabbing for "loot" then realizing they don't want most of it, throwing much of it away. It's wasteful, and a pity. Thank you, LPP, for coming up with a great middle ground to promote, conserve, and value!
Great idea on the Posters vs. Books! Way to go!!
This is not an unfamiliar topic for me. My husband attends a lot of conferences around the world...he comments on this frequently. He views it is almost comical the way other attendees practically run from booth to booth with large bags accumulating "things"! There are always glo in the dark pens, flashlights, flash drives, glow in the dark post it notes (he is in the energy field) available for the taking. People expect these items to be available. Does it secure a deal or a sale or even establish a relationship? Probably not. I applaud Little Pickle Press for not participating in this wasteful, costly activity. You are very generous with the posters...they are the top quality, educational material that is typical from Little Pickle Press and not cheap to produce. And, I hear you were autographing them too!
I attended BEA for the first time this year and was mildly appalled at some of the behavior I witnessed with regard to collecting swag. People were lining up for things because they were free and not because they had any interest or knew anything about them. I witnessed someone going through a bag of "stuff" and putting in the garbage, not even recycling, the unwanted goods. If people are attending to celebrate and honor books, then they should do just that.
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